Chuck vs the Beach
by LetsGoRed
Summary: Many fans of "Chuck" dream of a movie someday to pick up the questions left by the series finale. What if the studio finally heard the fans but gave them something more modest in scope? This short story packs in (or tries to) a fair amount of Chuck and Sarah (Charah) goodies in a compact story set sometime after the series finale.


A/N: I believe Warner Brothers owns "Chuck." I'm not Warner Bros.

xxxxx

It is January 26, 2021 and a short tweet appears on the official account for a certain television studio. "Head back to the beach." With it there is a hyperlink and "#Charah." Within a couple hours the Twitter accounts for the three most prominent actors of "Chuck," the show clearly referenced in the studio's tweet, have retweeted it, and one has popped onto Instagram. "No, it's not a 'Chuck' movie," he says, but he promises that fans will enjoy it. The link is for a video; with a click it launches….

[Fade in. Setting: Beach at sunset, same as the end of S5E13, the series finale. Camera: High and facing the ocean, same as last shot of finale. Chuck (C) and Sarah (S) are seen from behind, sitting side by side, a gap between them, enough to see light. Both are looking out at the ocean.]

[Camera: Now in front of Chuck and Sarah, a bit low looking up at them, relatively close, both in frame. Reminiscent of shots in the beach scene of the finale.]

[Chuck and Sarah are looking straight out, over the camera, at the ocean beyond. Flat expressions, lost in thought. Several beats pass, neither moving or saying anything.]

S: This view is lovely.

[Chuck turns to face Sarah (who continues to stare ahead at the ocean) and looking at her intently, says after a beat:]

C: It most certainly is.

[Sarah, sensing the stare from Chuck and grasping his meaning, turns to face him. They look at each for a moment before both break into broad grins, then move together to close the gap, kiss, and then wrap arms around each other's waists as they look at each other affectionately.]

[Sarah's face close to Chuck's, looking into his eyes.]

S: You haven't grown tired of the "view"? You've been looking at it for thirteen years.

[Chuck raises his gaze to the sky and crinkles his brow in an overly theatrical, and in obvious jest, 'Let me think about it' expression.]

S: Need I remind you I once routinely beat up people for a living?

C: [with a twinkle in his eyes] No need, Mrs. Chuck Bartowski.

S: [with matching twinkle] Don't you forget it, Mr. Sarah Walker.

C: Me forget? [smirking and emphasizing "me"]

[Sarah attempts to stare daggers back at Chuck, but cannot sustain it and her smile reforms. She places her head on Chuck's shoulder; he places his cheek against her head. A quiet, peaceful moment passes, then Sarah's phone rings; grudgingly she digs it out of her pocket, then perks up some upon looking at the screen. She answers.]

S: Hey, Casey… Ok… Yeah, he's right here. Hold on. [She taps the screen (for speaker mode) and holds it between her and Chuck.] Ok, you're on speaker.

[Chuck, jumping in before Casey can get a word out.]

C: Casey, you calling to confirm you'll be back in town tomorrow as planned to visit? Alex and Morgan are coming and bringing your grandkids. They've all been missing you, especially Morgan. ["especially Morgan" said with an amused expression on Chuck's face and a hint of laughter in his voice.]

[A grunt from Casey (JC) is heard through the phone.]

JC: [sounding haggard] Chuck, no time for that now. I only have a moment to explain.

[Chuck's expression quickly shifts to a look of concern.]

[Camera: Still in front of Chuck and Sarah, but much further away, with the ocean's edge rolling in and out of the bottom of the frame. Words cannot be heard as the sound of crashing waves overwhelms what is being said, but Chuck's and Sarah's body language shows them intensely focused on the call with Casey. Not quite half a minute passes.]

[Camera: Back to its prior close position. The sound of the ocean is once again barely audible.]

S: Alright, Casey. We'll head back to Carmichael Technologies so Chuck can get onto the system to work his magic, and I can start making some calls to my old contacts in more secure surroundings. Call us back in three hours.

JC: [with a hint of relief in his voice] Thanks. I will.

S: [with a serious, sincere tone] John, we'll get some answers.

C: Yeah, Casey, don't worry, we'll turn over every stone.

JC: I know. I called you two so I wouldn't have to worry. Have to go. Gertrude and I need to keep moving [hangs up].

[Chuck and Sarah share a brief intense look tinged with worry, then Chuck cranes his neck and looks over his shoulder]

C: [raised voice] KIDS! Sorry, but we have to go. Uncle John needs Mom and Dad's help. Come help me clean up.

[Camera: Now further back and higher up than it was at start of scene, capturing more of the area of beach behind Chuck and Sarah, which was out of frame earlier. There is a six year old boy -with Chuck's old mop of hair- and a seven year old girl -a mini Sarah- building a sand castle. The kids get up and run over to Chuck and Sarah.]

[Camera is back in front of Chuck and Sarah, close and aimed up from low as before and, as the kids arrive, Chuck picks up from between his legs below frame and brings into frame a Subway bag and cup. Daughter takes the cup.]

Son: [grabbing bag] Is there any sam'ich left?

S: [With a sympathetic expression] Daddy ate it all. [Turning to Chuck with a disapproving look] Spicy Italian. And then he kissed me.

C: [sheepishly] It was delicious.

[The four walk briskly from where Chuck and Sarah were sitting, Chuck holding their daughter's hand and Sarah holding their son's, to where the sand castle is. Chuck and Sarah, side by side, stoop to grab pails and then pick up kids, Chuck holding daughter on his far hip from Sarah and Sarah holding son on her far hip from Chuck.]

[Camera: At eye level, in front with all four in frame as they resume walking off the beach (towards camera, with camera maintaining distance), kids in arms.]

Daughter: Do we have to go now? I want to tell you about my castle…

Son: Our castle!

Daughter: …our castle. It's really, really cool.

C: [Stops and looks back admiringly at the castle] Oh, I can see that! We do have to go though. We'll be back again and we can all build one together. I promise.

[Party resumes walking. Camera: Continues to move with them, keeping all four in frame. After a few steps, Chuck looks at daughter in his arm.]

C: Ya'know, Mom, Uncle John, Uncle Morgan and I once had a pretty cool castle of our own. We worked in it! I'll tell you and your brother about it someday. [Chuck, as he's finishing saying that, looks from daughter to Sarah with a hint of a smile.]

Son: [looking at Sarah] Really? A castle?

S: Well, sort of. [Sarah turns head from son to return Chuck's look with a bigger smile] But trust me, it is a wonderful story.

[Camera: Back to the high, far position looking down on the beach. The family is walking briskly, toward and under the camera, out of frame. Fade out. End.]

xxxxx

A/N: Before getting to notes about the story above, I want to thank WillieGarvin for being very generous with his time to discuss "Chuck," for reading a prior draft of my story, and for encouraging me to post it. If you enjoy "Chuck"/Charah (and I'm guessing you do if you got this far), you must read his "Sarah vs the Kiss" short story. It captures what I like to imagine happened in the moments after the series finale ended. It's an absolutely wonderful read. Then for a highly entertaining alternate universe take on Chuck and Sarah that is in my opinion still very faithful to those two characters as they grew on the show, read WG's "Chuck vs a New Day."

Story notes:

A full "Chuck" movie, as much as I would love to see it happen, seems like a distantly remote possibility given the presumably high cost and difficulty of producing and bringing the cast back together. But what about a short episode, using one location so it can be shot in a day, a limited cast (Levi, Strahovski, Baldwin providing his voice, and two child actors), and made available online? That seems more financially and logistically plausible. Thus the idea for a short "Chuck" story that reads like a webisode. (Btw, January 26 is the anniversary of the airing of the series finale, if you were wondering about that date.)

My story is squarely aimed at getting all the good feelings in that I hope for Chuck and Sarah, with bonus happy news about Casey being with Gertrude Verbanski and Morgan still with Alex and now with kids. It's blatantly, shamelessly on the nose with what I want, but, I don't care as I'd eat it up with a spoon if Warner Bros did something like this.

"Mrs. Chuck Bartowski" and "Mr. Sarah Walker" is a call back to the last episode of S4 when Chuck and Sarah are in the limo after their wedding and call each other that.

The name change from Carmichael Industries to Carmichael Technologies is deliberate to suggest that the business has evolved into something else.

I enjoy how the show has Sarah and Casey occasionally address the other with first names rather than last to show one reaching out to the other at a serious moment as a friend rather than a work colleague, so I worked that in here with Sarah using "John."

Yes, a blatant Subway plug. First, for any fans of the show I think it would be funny given the history of Subway product placements. Second, in my imagination I'm thinking to help finance a short video, Subway gets on board to pay for the product placement. Given how Subway gets some credit for saving the show after its second season, maybe they'd financially support it again. Finally, it sets up the bit in the story about eating a smelly sandwich right before kissing for fans who know that when Zach and Yvonne did their first on screen kiss in S1E9, Zach had just eaten a sandwich on set and had bad breath when shooting the kiss. Both of them have told that story in interviews. (It might be mentioned in the extras on the S1 Blu-ray set.)

The very last line of dialogue is meant to call back to Sarah telling Chuck to "trust me" in the pilot's beach scene and asking him to "tell me our story" in the series finale's beach scene.


End file.
